The invention relates to a bottle carrier made of foldable flat material.
Bottle carriers of the type according to the invention have on both sides of the handle dividers defined by the front walls, longitudinal walls and separating webs, into which bottles are insertable. They are also called “open basket” bottle carriers or “basket-like” bottle carriers. The bottles are held in the dividers separated from each other so that glass contact with the bottles is reduced. Such bottle carriers with separating webs, which are folded out of the lower edge areas of the outer handle walls and the upper edge areas of the longitudinal walls, are called “strap-style” bottle carriers due to the strap shape of the separating webs. The separating webs are connected with the upper edge areas of the longitudinal walls via vertical, external web folding lines. The handle and the longitudinal walls have recesses in the areas from which the separating webs are folded, which disturb the outward appearance. The separating webs only have a limited height so that glass contact between neighboring bottles on the same side of the handle is only slightly restricted. A large opening is present below the handle, through which the neighboring bottles can easily come in contact on different sides of the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,238, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes an “open basket” bottle carrier of “strap-style” type. The inner handle walls are connected with the front-side edges of the outer handle walls via front-side handle folding lines and folded against their insides. The outer handle walls are interconnected by outer handle folding lines and the inner handle walls by inner handle folding lines. When folded over each other, the outer handle walls and the inner handle walls are folded together around the outer and inner handle folding lines. Neighboring connecting straps are folded together, glued together and arranged between front-side edge areas of the outer handle walls and glued with them. The connecting straps protrude downwards from the lower edge of the handle and extend up to shortly before the bottom wall.
Such bottle carriers are cost-effective since they can be produced from a one-piece blank with relatively low material use. The assembly and folding of these bottle carriers are also relatively easy. However, it has been shown that such bottle carriers can fail under high loads. This can be compensated for through use of cardboard with a high rigidity. The material costs are hereby increased.
Against this background, an object of the invention is to create a bottle carrier of the initially described type, which withstands loads better.
The bottle carrier according to the invention made of foldable flat material has:                a handle comprising two overlapping outer handle walls and two inner handle walls arranged between the outer handle walls,        front walls, which are aligned perpendicular to the handle and have respectively two front wall sections on different sides of the handle,        connecting straps, which are connected with an inner edge of a front wall section via a front folding line, folded around the front folding lines between front-side edge areas of the outer handle walls and connected with the handle,        longitudinal walls, which extend parallel to the handle and each of which are connected with the outer edges of two front wall sections of different front walls via side folding lines,        a bottom wall, which is connected with the lower edges of the longitudinal walls via bottom folding lines,        separating webs, which are connected with lower edge areas of the outer handle walls via inner web folding lines, folded around the inner web folding lines out of the lower edge areas of the outer handle walls and aligned parallel to the front walls, characterized in that        an insert is arranged between the two outer handle walls, which has inner front-side edge areas on both front sides, which overlap with the connecting straps and are connected with them.        